Secondary professions for a Ritualist
Ritualist Warrior A Ritualist Warrior may seem to have few practical applications, but there are some uses. Defensive stances combined with defensive Ashes can offer a lot of protection, but for interruption prevention, a Resolve Ritualist Mesmer would be better. Combinations such as "None Shall Pass!" with Earthbind, or defensive shouts such as "Shields Up!" combined with defensive spirits like Union and Shelter. With the addition of Nightfall, a Ritualist/Warrior is now a lot more viable, thanks to the elite skill Spirit's Strength. Example Builds: * Ritualist Ranger Both the Ritualist and Ranger can summon spirits, therefore taking advantage of the Ritualist's Primary Attribute, Spawning Power. At approximately 16 Spawning Power, a Ranger's nature spirit would have 64% more Health, making them last much longer. A Ritualist's spirits coupled with a rangers traps would create a strong defence in PvP and might just be an essential part of a ranger trap group. Some Ritualist weapon spells can add useful affects or a lot of damage to Barrage. However, spells that affect the next attack will only affect the first arrow of Barrage. Wailing Weapon, Brutal Weapon and Guided Weapon are the only spells that will affect the entire Barrage. The ranger profession also serves as a good combination when traps are used around the summoned spirits. Use Rupture Soul to further damage the attackers on the spirit. Another good use for a Ranger secondary is to use Serpent's Quickness or Quickening Zephyr to reduce the lengthy recharge times on Spirits. The benefit of these skills over Ritual Lord is that they aren't Elite, and so allow a Ritualist to use a different Elite. Example Builds: * Ritualist Elementalist The elementalist Glyphs would seem to make excellent use of some ritualist skills, namely Glyph of Renewal. One helpful skill this could be used with is Anguished Was Lingwah. Glyph of Renewal does not work on binding rituals, those are not spells. The Glyphs would be useful, and if you are looking for a more offensive style of play many of these skills could be of benefit. There are also several knockdown skills (Earthquake, Meteor Shower for example) that would benefit greatly from the Earthbind Spirit. Another interesting idea is to use the elementalist's wards in conjunction with the spirits, causing near-invincibility in an area for your allies. (Keep in mind most wards say non-spirit allies, so be careful.) Example Builds: * Ritualist Mesmer Ritualist spirits take a long time to summon, making them easier to interrupt. Mantra of Concentration/Mantra of Resolve could help with this. Ritualist spirits are skills, not spells, so some interrupts don't affect them. Keep in mind that since Binding Rituals are not spells, many Mesmer skills, like Mantra of Recovery, won't work on them. Mesmer's energy-stealing spells are also helpful as some spirits have a high energy cost. Some Ritualist skills are better when combined with other Ritualist skills, which makes energy management even more important. Another good skill the Mesmer profession offers, is the well-known Arcane Echo enchantment. It is used mainly for channeling builds and the Ritualist farming build, using primarily Vengeful Was Khanhei. Although Resilient Weapon and Resilient Was Xiko are powerful skills, it is often hard to take advantage of their bonuses. Using the Mesmer skill Signet of Midnight, you can blind yourself indefinitely, giving yourself up to +8 life regeneration and +24 armor. You will also be disabling an enemy attacker at the same time. Coupled with Soothing Memories while holding the ashes, you can sustain enormous amounts of damage. You could even add Physical Resistance for more protection! Just keep in mind that if an allied Monk or henchman removes your blindness, you may suddenly lose your near-invulnerability. Example Builds: *Rt/Me Earthbinder Ritualist Monk Both monk and ritualist being full blown healing classes, it is usually not necessary to double the professions. However there are some exceptions. Ritualists completely lack hex removal skills and have only limited condition removal, both are abundantly present withhin the monk skills. Ritualist/monks can use the interaction between Attuned Was Songkai and Heal Party to take the place of (usually primary elementalist) Heal Party spammers, allowing a cheap mass heal that is independent of spirits. Example Builds: *Rt/Mo Soul Spinner *Rt/Mo Burst Healer Ritualist Necromancer Spawning Power, the Ritualist's Primary Attribute, makes excellent use of the Necromancer's undead ally creating skills, effectively giving them up to 64% more Health with a Spawning Power of 16. The main drawback to this is that the maximum minion level would be 14, and this tactic requires some extra skills to be suitable for minion masters who wish to use their minions to utilize Death Nova. Specifically, Signet of Creation can give all of your minions a little extra life, and cause them to die at a specific time. (This is still usable as a N/Rt, of course.)Explosive Growth, another spawning power skill, seems a useful way to add damage when summoning minions in a large group. In addition, the Ritualist has some skills that require Health to be sacrificed. Aura of the Lich, therefore, becomes a very viable skill to be used in conjunction. Verata's Sacrifice and Blood of the Master respectively provide health regeneration and one-shot healing, to the Ritualist's minions, keeping them alive longer, while Well of Blood provides health regeneration for spirits, minions, and other players. Combining that with the Health Regeneration spirit, Recuperation, you can give large amounts of players much-appreciated Regen. Example Builds: *Rt/N Explosive Creation Ritualist Assassin The Ritualist/Assassin can use skills from the Shadow Arts line in evading and escaping from attacks. *The Assassin skill Spirit Walk allows efficient travel between spirits. *Ritualists can take advantage of the many Assassin Escape skills to get away from foes. *Caltrops is an AoE cripple that can be useful in running away from melee opponents. Note: A player may not Shadow Step while holding an item. If a player attempts this the item will drop before the player shadow steps. In this way a Ritualist can bomb targets by first running up to enemies and using a recall skill forcing the item they are holding to automatically drop causing any aoe effect based on the items description. Example Builds: * Ritualist Paragon The Ritualist/Paragon is a group's best friend; the combination of the Paragon's shouts and chants combined with the Ritualist's spirits and spells makes this combination very potent. *One potential build uses restoration and motivation to generate massive amounts of area boosts and healing *Another possibility is the use of Paragons many buffing skills in conjunction with the Ritualist's weapon spells to give boosts to a single tank, greatly enhancing their capabilities. *Additionally, a several skills such as Leader's Pride possessed by the Paragon grant Energy, a great boon to the energy-hungry Ritualist's. Ritualist Dervish Ritualist